A semiconductor element, liquid crystal display element, imaging device, thin film magnetic head, or other device is produced by using a substrate processing system to perform various types of processing on a semiconductor wafer, glass plate, or other substrate. The processing performed by a substrate processing system on a substrate includes for example coating processing for coating a photoresist or other photosensitizer, exposure processing for projection exposure of patterns of a mask or reticle (when referring to these all together, referred to as a “mask”) on the substrate coated with the photosensitizer, and development processing for developing the exposed substrate.
The above exposure processing is performed by an exposure apparatus provided in the substrate processing system. The coating processing and development processing are formed by a coater/developer installed in-line with the exposure apparatus. Further, the above exposure apparatus or other substrate processing system is often provided with an evaluation apparatus for evaluating the uniformity of the patterns formed on the variously processed substrate or the degree of overlay of the patterns, an inspection apparatus for detecting the secondary electrons or back scattered electrons when firing an electron beam at the substrate to inspect the patterns formed on the substrate, etc. Further, in this description, “substrate processing system” sometimes means the individual exposure apparatus, coater, developer, evaluation apparatus, inspection apparatus, etc. and sometimes means a combination of two or more of these as a whole.
Note that in a conventional substrate processing system, the control program for controlling the system, utility programs beneficial in operating the system, and other various types of programs are usually attached to the system. These have been provided to the customers of the substrate processing systems free of charge. Further, since the above way of thinking has been the mainstream, usually upgrades of the various types of program have been made available free of charge.
For this reason, once the manufacturer of the substrate processing system sells (transfers) the substrate processing system to a customer, if that customer transfers its used substrate processing system to a third party, the above various types of programs will end up being transferred along with the substrate processing system without the approval of the manufacturer of the substrate processing system. The above various types of programs are inherently copyrighted articles and themselves have asset value. They are not simple attachments to a substrate processing system. Therefore, it is believed desirable to conclude a license agreement with the user (transferee). By concluding such an agreement, the manufacturer of the substrate processing system would be able to centrally manage the installation of the substrate processing system, its remodeling, support, and upgrades of programs and the third party purchasing a used substrate processing system would be able to use the system with confidence, so both sides would benefit.
However, even if the manufacturer of a substrate processing system and its customer conclude the above agreement, if the substrate processing system ends up being transferred to a third party, the above control program etc. could be used without any restriction to operate the substrate processing system, so the manufacturer of the substrate processing system would have to confirm the existence of any transfer by some sort of method and would have to take protective measures to disable use of the control program etc. in the event of their being illicitly used.